Anna Faris Reveals She Nearly Quit Acting After ‘Mom’

When Anna Faris shocked fans by quitting Mom before the show’s eighth and final season, she was considering leaving the profession behind completely. Faris did not though and is making a comeback with her upcoming move The Estate. She starred on Mom as Christy Plunkett, a recovering alcoholic and single mother.

After leaving Mom, “it felt like the first time that I didn’t have my foot on the gas,” Faris told PEOPLE. Faris, 45, became a star in 2000 with Scary Movie and worked almost non-stop in movies and television shows for two decades. She chased role after role, “feeling competitive, feeling comparative.”

Her decision to leave Mom came with such relief that she considered ending her career completely. “I was like, ‘Do I have enough [money] to retire?’” she told the magazine. Instead, she decided she just needed to relax and reevaluate what she wanted to do next. “I really started to think about where I wanted to go in terms of career,” she said. “And I definitely was enjoying all that free time.”

Mom launched in September 2013, and like many Chuck Lorre-produced CBS sitcoms, became a runaway success. After seven seasons, Faris decided it was time to move on and announced her exit just before production on Season 8 was to begin. Her co-stars, led by Allison Janney, carried the show for one more season.

Meanwhile, Faris was enjoying time with cinematographer Michael Barrett, whom she married last summer, and her 10-year-old son Jack, whom she shares with ex-husband Chris Pratt. Barrett also has two children from a previous marriage. After the break, she decided to join The Estate, a comedy about scheming sisters (Faris and Toni Colette) who compete with their cousins (David Duchovny and Rosemarie DeWitt) to get into their aunt Hilda’s (Kathleen Turner) will.

“For The Estate to come along, it felt like Cinderella’s shoe a little bit in terms of a job. We got to shoot in New Orleans, a city that I love, with this incredible cast. And we got to play,” Faris told PEOPLE. “It reminded me of my love for performing.”

The Estate also gave Faris a chance to play someone other than a sweet, bubbly character. “There’s such liberation in getting to play kind of atrocious people,” Faris said. “The emphasis for so much of my career felt like the likability factor: ‘Is she likable?’ That always felt like the mantra. So I had a blast playing Savanna. It nurtured something in me.”

Although Mom almost lead to Faris quitting acting, she looked back on the series with fond memories. The experience of starring in a sitcom was “really rewarding in a different way,” as filming the show was a “very precise” project. On The Estate, things were a bit looser. “It made me really excited, and I hadn’t felt that way in a while,” she said.

The Estate opens in theaters on Friday. Meanwhile, all eight seasons of Mom are available to stream on Hulu.